Hot Cars: 'Worse than Ever'

Via @warriorwriter

Last year, Metro rolled out the B.S. "Operation Cool Breeze" story about their response to the hot car "phenomenon."

This year, the initiative lacked a dumb title, but promised pretty much the same.

According to this WTOP report, Metro says "forty percent of condensers and evaporators on the 1000 series cars have been replaced, and 78 percent of condensers and evaporators on the 5000 series have been replaced."

Additionally, in April, the Washington Examiner reported Metro as saying they plan "to start work on the BREDA 2000 and 3000 series cars next week. It is nearly two-thirds of the way through a separate seasonal tune-up of all the cars, as well."

One li'l Stessel over at Metro, Cathy Asato, told the Examiner the following:

Last year, we saw a 23 percent reduction in HVAC issues across our fleet, but we are not resting on that success.

Sounds good right?

Not so fast.

"It's worse than it ever has been," said a Metro source with deep, specific knowledge of the hot car problem.

The source went on to say that while the engineering notion behind the fixes looked good on paper, "It's making things worse. We tell them, and they keep on doing it. It doesn't make any sense."

Of course, the word from the Metro Ministry of Truth is that there's really not much of a hot car problem at all. Dan Stessel told WTOP the number of hot cars numbers in the "low, single- digit percentage."

Most riders would probably scoff at that account. The hot car tracking site, FixWMATA.com had the number hovering well above 30 percent before the heat waves.

Metro likes to fly the excuse that when it gets to a certain temperature, the AC just can't keep up.

That's just not true. Yesterday, one of the hottest days of the year, the car I was in was cool and comfortable, even at the outdoor stations, and even with a crush load. The ACs can work in even the harshest conditions.

"The ACs should work better," said another inside source. "Something is not getting translated from engineering to the mechanics or the other way around. They're spending a lot of money and hours, but the fixes are just not working or someone is doing them wrong."

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Throw us a Bone

From M:

OK Metro. You've raised my fares and taken away my Blue Line with a lie about Rush+. You've made me late again and again with every day, multiple offloads, and I've probably sweat 20 pounds off this month alone in your broken hot cars.

You've left riders to fend for themselves when a train broke down, you've derailed, and your computers caused the whole system to stop two times. The brakes fall off, and if they don't, they smell like rotten fish, and you've tried to sneak by increased headways under the guise of helping the riders.

All of this you've done this summer alone!

All the while, you keep painting a rosy picture of how things are improving.

They're not, but you win.

I have no other choice but to take you to work. I'm stuck with you.

But I have a request. How about showing just a little customer appreciation?

I did some looking around on the web, and a lot of transit agencies do customer appreciation days, usually offering free rides for a day, partnering with a business to give away prizes people actually want or, at the very least having senior staff come meet and greet customers on the rails.

As far as I can tell you show absolutely no appreciation for the people who pay your salaries. You know only deflect and evade. Even your "improved" twitter has a lot of attitude.

Here's my idea. How about a Richard Sarles dunk tank? It'd show he is a good sport, that he was on our side, that he could take a joke, and man, it'd be a relief to hit that cool water in a hot station.

I'd even pay to have a shot and dunking him, and who knows, It might even energize the old guy.

Of course, I don't think he'd really do that but come on, Metro. Throw us a bone! Show us you care just a teeny weeny bit.

Every day, I feel like I'm handing over my money to a bunch of crooks who are laughing at me.

As a footnote, in 2004, Metro did partner with ING bank to offer for something appearing like a customer appreciation day by offering free rides. The funny part is ING paid the fares and Metro, well here's what they said:

"It has been a pleasure for us to work with ING DIRECT as promotional partners," said Metro General Manager and CEO Richard White. "This promotion is a win-win for Metro and its customers as well as for ING DIRECT. Metro is delighted to have the opportunity to give this little thank you gift to our regular customers for their loyalty to our Metro system. It’s one way for Metro to show our faithful riders that we value their business, and we hope they" ll continue to rely on Metro."

So very Metro. They got all their money yet claimed they gave something back to the riders.

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